Rough Seas

Sermon st St Patrick's June 24, 2018 - Rev'd Jane Bearden

Text is Mark 4: 35-41 

Work by James Seward

Last Wednesday in our midday Eucharist we used these same lessons for our text.  I usually do very little preparation for a reflection at a midday week service.  Instead I prefer to open up a conversation with those who are gathered and let the Spirit lead us into some understanding or observation.  This past Wednesday as the news from the US Mexico border grew direr, I opened with my sense of helplessness and bewilderment over the complexity, the extent, and the severity of the crisis.  There were nods of assent among the 5 or so folks gathered around the altar. 

Now it is not my intent to open a conversation that - given the state of our society today - would quickly dissolve into controversy.  But what I do want to do is talk about our Christian faith and how it speaks to the feelings and responses we are experiencing. 

A few years back I spent some time in Israel traveling back and forth into the West Bank.  I want to share with you a reflection that I wrote then.  The situation has not changed much there and in fact it has gotten worse not better.  But what is most disturbing to me is the similarity between the situation there and our situation on the border.  Listen to what I wrote back then.  I asked again and again as we went from one devastated town to the next, "Lord, where are you?  How can these atrocities be happening?  Don't you care?  This is what I wrote in my journal.

“Last Sunday we woke up early and boarded our bus at 7:30.  We had planned to attend the 10 AM Eucharist at St. Andrew's in Ramallah, but we had not been allowed to pass through the checkpoint and so we had continued on our journey the long way, crossing through the occupied territory on roads made for Israelis and internationals only and then heading north on the eastern border with Jordan to make our way to Nazareth.  That is how we ended up, unexpectedly, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee near where Jesus had prepared breakfast for his disciples after the Resurrection.  We had some extra time on our hands and we were hungering for a Eucharistic celebration that the soldiers had denied us earlier in the day.

The beauty and the peaceful quiet of the place contrasted sharply with the grotesque, harshness of the checkpoint.  As I was standing in the shallow water letting the waves wash around my ankles Bishop Tom came up and began to tell me about the topography of the place.  There is a valley running between two mountains through which the wind is funneled onto the lake.  That wind is the cause of the sudden and violent storms that are typical of the Sea.  Tom reminded us of the story in the gospels of Jesus who had wanted to get away for a while and so he asked the disciples to put to sea and to go to the other side of the lake.  But on the way a great storm arose and these fishermen who were thoroughly familiar with the dangers of storms at sea and who should have been able to handle the boat - panicked and ran to Jesus for help.    In response Jesus calmed the wind and the waves and then asked the tense disciples, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" 

In Israel today there is a lot of fear.  The fear manifests itself in suicide bombers and snipers - in bulldozers and tanks, rocket firing helicopters and a system of oppression that is intent on the eradication of the Palestinian people from the Holy Land.  The fear is manifested in a gigantic wall.  You see there is this gaping hole that weaves in and out of the landscape there that takes the form of a gigantic wall of concrete, razor wire, and guard towers.  Cities have become isolated from each other and the barren earth has been violated by with bulldozers and cranes. The Israeli government calls it a security fence.  It is an Apartheid Wall.  It is designed to protect Israel from terror, but in fact only serves to isolate and alienate people who are trying desperately to live their life with some sense of normalcy in a place that is far from normal.  Surely, there are kind, generous, faithful people on both sides of the Wall, but there are also those who are consumed by fear and hatred and their will seems to be dominant. 

That reflection was written over 10 years ago but sadly it is strikingly applicable to us today.

Mark’s story

1.                  Mark picks up right where we left off last week.  His sermon is complete and now he and the disciples set off for some quiet time across the lake and we hear that story that I had included in my reflection. 

1.                  Mark does not elaborate but simply says that they went to him and with a sense of incredulity at his apparent disinterest in their situation, asked Jesus whether or not he cared about what happened to them. 

2.                  They clearly did not want to die in the storm and they could not understand why Jesus was not as frightened as they were.

                                                                  ii.                        Mark tells us that Jesus came onto the boat “just as he was”.

1.                  He brought no outward symbols of his power but only his faith that God from whom he was called would be present with them in the chaos of the storm.

2.                  Jesus chose to forgo the very human but vain attempts that we make so often to control the happenings – both good and bad – that swirl around us.   Instead, in Jesus’ response, we see how absolute faith in God’s authority over creation brings calm in the midst of chaos.  From the depths of that faith is Jesus’ authority to still the raging storm and bring about the Peace that passes all of our understanding.

1.                  The harsh reality is that we live and breathe in the midst of chaos. 

a.                  The fragile vessels of our lives – our planet, our cities, our churches, indeed our own bodies are constantly assaulted by the windstorms that rage around us.

b.                  Fear grips us as surely as the sun comes up in the morning.  Fear of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of rejection, fear of loneliness, fear of death – these are all very real and present dangers of our lives. 

c.                   Nothing in our lives is truly under our control. 

2.                  Sunday by Sunday we come into this church with all of our storms raging around us.

a.                  We get on our knees and ask God to change things for us.  We pray for a cure from illness or addiction.  We pray for a job or for some change in our life that we believe will make everything better.  We pray for the children – ours and those we do not know, that they will have someone there to comfort and to reassure them that they are safe and will be cared for.  We pray for our leaders in government, in the church, in our cities and towns that they will have wisdom and compassion in governing.  We pray for those who are oppressed or incarcerated, those who are victims of violence.  And we pray for those who have died and for those who are grieving.

                                                                    i.                        And I know with all my heart that God is right there listening, caring, sustaining us who come in prayer. 

b.                  But this I also know.  Life does not always turn out the way that our prayers ask.  Sometimes illness overtakes us.  Sometimes a job interview does not come through.  Sometimes our father or mother or brother or sister continues to suffer from addiction.  Sometimes we are bullied or shamed or assaulted.  Sometimes the very people to whom we look for guidance fail us miserably.  Sometimes life just does not seem to ease up at all.

i.                        The last thing that I would want to do is to say that we must roll over and let life blow us where it wills, because I believe with all my heart that we are God’s very hands and feet in this world and so we are called to respond, to act in ways that alleviate the pain in our world.  We are called to step out and to express our outrage at injustice.  And most of all we are called to love and to treat others in the same way we would want them to treat us were the situation reversed. 

                                                                  ii.                        When someone is driven from their home by violence, poverty or natural disaster and met with shaming, anger, and isolation from individuals or from governments, they are traumatized in ways which stay with and influence their actions for the rest of their lives.  For people who are made to feel as though they do not deserve love or compassion the damage has been done.  We have done it.  There is no “I’m sorry” that can fix it.  Maya Angelou in reflecting on the effect our actions or inactions have on others once said…   “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  Those children, taken from their parents – no medicine can fix their fear.  They will never forget nor will we.  But despair is not what faith offers either to those who are injured or to those who have offended.  So let’s set our minds to offer something else. 

                                                                iii.                        The role of the Church in conflict is to offer hope for reconciliation, even between the bitterest enemies.  Although in the end a political solution is necessary, before a lasting political solution can be found, immigrants and nationals, city folk and country folk, blue states and red states and everything in between need to sit down together to acknowledge the suffering and grief they have experienced in this conflict’s history and the struggles they will all face going forward together.  We need to listen to each other.

                                                                 iv.                        And in response to another’s pain we must offer love and hope – the same things that Jesus offers us today.

                                                                   v.                         Jesus comes to us with these words… Peace!  Be still!  That boat that they were in was still out in the middle of the sea.  There was still the potential for storms.  The promise of God is not one of changing the ordinariness of life.  That ordinariness is the very storm in which we live.

                                                                 vi.                        The promise of God is that the evils of this world do not have ultimate power over us or of creation.  It is God who laid the foundation, God who stilled the storm, and it is God who is present with us no matter what ills befall us.  Jesus offers us in image and in word a blessing of calm amidst the chaos.  Peace.  Be still!  

Amen